Boyhood friends from Bethehem have helped shape Emmy-nominated HBO series

Going into the family business was never a dream of Bethlehem natives Casey Bloys and Jay Feather but they still found a way to follow in their fathers' footsteps.

From the late '60s into the 2000s, Casey and Jay's dads, Dave Bloys and Jeff Feather, worked side by side, first at IBM and then at Pentamation, the Valley-based software business they founded in the early '70s.

Casey and Jay have continued the friendly tradition by landing jobs at HBO, where one of their shared shows, "Veep," has become a breakout hit. Bloys, in his capacity as the senior vice president of entertainment, oversees the series, while Feather works as the show's director of photography, helping shape the look.

At the Sept. 22 Emmys, "Veep" is up for five awards, including Outstanding Comedy Series and Lead Actress for star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who won the Emmy last year for the show. Two of Bloys' other programs — "Girls" and Enlightened" — are up for seven more prizes. In the Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series category Bloys has three horses: Louis-Dreyfus, Lena Dunham for "Girls" and Laura Dern for "Enlightened."

Bloys is management while Feather is on the creative team. But when Bloys visits the Baltimore set of "Veep," the lifelong pals hang out and talk shop.

"I am the proverbial network suit and usually I wouldn't have a lot of interaction with the director of photography," says Bloys. "On my trips to Baltimore, I talk to the show-runner Armando [Iannucci, executive producer] but I always see Jay. It's funny that we've had this long history and here we are together again on this show."

"Veep," which began shooting its third season on Sept. 6, stars Louis-Dreyfus as Vice President Selina Meyer, a hilariously self-deluded narcissist who, with the help of her staff (Anna Chlumsky, Tony Hale, Matt Walsh), uses politics — and anything else — to get out of one predicament after another.

Louis-Dreyfus is a hoot and the humor is cynical and biting. You don't have to be a political junkie to appreciate Iannucci's way with a zinger.

Bloys was key to the show's development. A few years ago he approached Iannucci after seeing the Brit's "The Thick of It," a BBC hit about the blunders of the fictitious Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship.

"We wanted to be in business with Armando," recalls Bloys, a 1989 Freedom High School grad. "His take on politics is bleak but realistic …Originally, he was going to set the show at the State Department. But then he called me and said, 'I want to do a show about the Vice President's office.'

"I thought that was very smart because it's an inherently funny position because it has no power. It's a just-in-case position. We've also seen so many vice presidents try to shape the office with their own ambitions — or lack of ambition. A Dick Cheney vice-presidency is very different from, say, a Dan Quayle vice-presidency. "

Next, Bloys and Iannuci hit upon the idea of casting Louis-Dreyfus, whom Bloys considers one of the best comic actresses on TV.

"Her timing, her facial expressions, her physicality — she really personifies the frustration of that job," says Bloys who lives in Los Angeles with his husband, First Amendment attorney Alonzo Wickers, and their twin 6-year olds. "You can see the ambition busting out of her but she has to contain it.

"And Julia is inherently likeable. I really can't imagine any other actress pulling off what she's able to do."

If you've seen "Veep," you know that its look — all fluid handheld camera work and documentary-esque lighting — is one of its trademark features. Setting that look is Feather, who was recommended for the job by Bloys.

"I put Jay in touch with the producers but he had to prove how talented he was, which he's done," says Bloys. "He worked his way up. He started as a camera operator and after the DP left, Jay took over that job and has been the DP for, basically, two seasons now. It's a key role on the show."

Indeed, Feather, a 1989 Liberty High School grad, is the one who helps decide where and when the camera moves and how much light is used to illuminate the actors.

"Veep" is not shot in the traditional style of most sitcoms. Instead it is driven by Iannucci's rapid-fire dialogue. The cameras pan around the Baltimore soundstage that doubles as the vice president's office, catching the always-in-motion actors as they bounce witty lines off one another.

For Feather, the trickiest part of what he does is keeping the camera prowling around, picking up the reaction shots of the ensemble cast members, while also guaranteeing that the actors are illuminated well enough to be seen.

"I have to allow the actors use of about 270 degrees of the set while still making sure the show is properly lit," says Feather, who also serves as the NYC unit director on Cinemax's "Banshee" and the second unit DP, or director of photography, on HBO's "Eastbound and Down."